Dennis Bangham

William Bronson wrote: Sifting it and mixing it with alfalfa was what I thought of immediately.
With the huge amount you have, and because it can already grow weeds, I wonder you could sift, fill a bed with that sifted material and plant it with inoculated legumes, thus gowing your nitrogen into your potting soil.

I would like to keep it in piles to conserve space.  I should be able to flatten them out but they would still be 3 foot tall.  

I have a couple large piles of old woodchips and one of soil from under the woodchip piles.  
I want to turn this into quality potting soil for seedling and grafted trees.
I was thinking of adding alfalfa pellets and SEA-90, along with some top soil.  Doing this will create several years worth of potting soil.
I keep turning these piles to control weeds. (nice to have a small tractor)

Any suggestions?  Should I mix all now and cover with a tarp so all the nutrients don't wash away, or should I just do the mixing as needed?

Hi Hannah,  
We may be neighbors (Huntsville).  
I am growing numerous fruit trees on a slight slope that has clay about 6 to 10 inches of top soil on top.
After I cleared the area I put down 8 to 10 inches of wood chips to control weed growth and also put some biology into the soil.
I had access to all the wood chips I could handle and I have a small tractor so I could handle a lot.
After several years (started fall of 2020) I cleared up the decayed wood chips and put down various cover crops.  
Started with Winter Wheat and Barley over winter.  Was not a heavy producer but the roots help break up the clay.
This spring I put down some deer plot seed mix.
The deer plot cover crops I found at the local Farmer Coop have all that Dr. Redhawk recommended. Turnip, Tillage Radish, Rape Seed, Clovers....
I added more tillage radish and sweet Beets also.  I let these root vegetables rot in the ground in order to get more nutrients into the soil.
This will be my first real crop of Persimmons, Jujube, Goumi and Asian Pears.  Pawpaws take longer and I am only seeing a few of them.
Takes time but the trees I am growing seem to be robust and clay is not a show stopper.
My goal is to trap as much rain on this land as possible.

Like some teenagers, some will sleep in late.  Wait until June to determine if they will make it or not.

Nice.  This fall I will be enjoying my orchard of persimmon and pawpaw.  

Around 200 trees on a one+ acre lot in a subdivision.  My off button broke.

Tina Gee wrote:I’m hoping to learn ferment/ammendments small scale in my yard before rolling out to my community. Does anyone know if out of date tinned sardines etc can be used to start a compost ferment?

Look into JADAM there is a recipe for using fish.

I am following Dr. Redhawk's guidance by adding Clover, Tillage Radish, Rape Seed and a couple other. After reading the dynamic accumulator (above) I went and bought sugar beets (2lbs for $5) and spread them around my older trees and will make JADAM Liquid Fertilizer out of Sugar Beet Pulp for around my seedlings.
The sugar beets will help add to the bacteria and fungal growth.  Plus I can harvest some to eat.
I also add a couple types of turnip and mustard as green mulch and let them reseed. I have to give some greens away to friends and force them to be healthy.

I like this topic and hope to kick start it back into the discussion. I found a Dynamic Accumulator Database from USDA.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19S3wsjXU6VPzmbklZLVxKt6DCyZIPjCYw6zRrVg7M4Y/edit?gid=662104531#gid=662104531

I know Alfalfa has a good amount of Nitrogen and Beets have a lot of NPK.
I am thinking of experimenting with a 50 lb bag of alfalfa pellets and a 50 lb bag of shredded beet pulp.  
Soak them in an IBC tote and pour around the base of my fruit trees.

Anyone with experience in using Alfalfa Pellets and Shredded Beet Pulp as an organic NPK supplement for fruit trees?  
I am wondering if putting one of these in a food safe IBC tote add water and let it age.  Does this make sense?